An Unlikely Alliance
by Elandil
Summary: "We only just fought one war, and now you expect us to fight again?" After the war, Nico, Percy and Annabeth foolishly hoped that they could get away from the fighting, but now the earth is facing a new threat that Olympus cannot face alone. Desperate to gain allies, Athena contacts Director Nick Fury with a tempting proposal, 3 major heroes for a chance to save the world!
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Okay, okay, I know its another story and that I really need to finish some of my others, but I really do work better with more than one project on a go at one time and I really, really wanted to write this after a conversation I was having with Ingradera the other day. Anyway, here is the new story and I hope you enjoy it.**

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_All around __**him**__ were children though they did not seem the same as those happy kids __**he**__ was used to in the streets of New York. No, these kids were harder, grimmer with a glint in their eyes that made them seem like soldiers though the youngest could only have been about 7 years old. All of them, without exception, were decked out in an old form of armour that glittered in various shades of gold and bronze in the predawn light, though the faces of the assembled children could barely be seen and, although they all seemed to be setting about their own tasks, an air of tension hung around them and it was enough to make __**him**__ on edge. _

_After several long moments of this, the atmosphere changed and they all turned to a couple that had obviously just exited from the only tent on the plane and a hushed silence filled the air as the crowd waited for them to speak. Unnoticed by the others, __**he **__made __**his**__ way to the front where __**he**__ could make out the faces of the new arrivals._

_The first was a girl, around 17 in age with golden ringlets to her waist and grey eyes that looked to have seen too much. Her fair skin tone could barely be made out through the blanket of bruises and cuts upon her arms and what part of her face was visible through her helmet though she stood firm beside her partner. She was tall and lean, but he stood a head taller and had the muscles of a soldier._

_Noticing the crowd assembled before him, the boy sighed and shifted slightly so that his helmet could be seen propped against his hip with one arm, with the other, he brushed raven hair from eyes as deep as the ocean and it was obvious to all that he was hiding a great pain. All together, the couple did not look entirely sane though the children seemed to look to the two of them as leaders. Sighing once again, the boy shifted to face the troupes, for that is all they could be classed as._

"_Heroes, we will not lie to you… our situation is bad, nearly all of you are already exhausted and our enemy is barely straining itself, but this is not the end. We came here for one purpose and that hasn't changed, nor has our resolve. We will stay, and we will fight, we will show them the true might of Olympus. We will not back down. If we fight today, if we fight in the way that we know in our hearts that we can, our names will be remembered forever more with those of our ancestors. We will stand proud in the eyes of future generations and I tell you this now… we will fight this evil with every breath left in our bodies and we _will _win. But for now, if we die, we die with honour knowing that we have earned out place in the Elysium fields amongst our family and that is something that no one can take way from us. Now however, you must rest, we attack at dawn!"_

_There was a great cheer at the end of his speech which saw the couple back into the tent were __**he **__could just about make out the figures of several more people before the fabric flap fell shut behind them. To __**him**__ the speech had been unsettling and confusing, but to the amassed army it seemed to work as a beacon of hope that eased some of the fear in their hearts. Quietly and with precision, they made there way back to their prior positions returning to their activities or settling down to sleep for a sort while. It was true, what the boy had said, they all seemed to be on the edge of their limit and not one could __**he **__see that did not have an injury, minor or not._

_Using the sparse amount of time before what was sure to be a drawn out battle, __**he **__walked amongst the ranks that __**he **__had found the minute that __**he **__had begun looking for them. This army seemed to have been made up of several different races, though that was nothing new to the soldier, but many of them seemed similar in the way they acted or the tone of voice they used, to __**him **__it was obvious that they had all seen far too much and it saddened __**him. **__For children to know such pain was a terrible crime yet they seemed to shoulder it without any sense that such a thing was out of the ordinary giving __**him **__the impression that death was all too familiar with these people._

_Once, not long after the first couple arrived __**he **__saw another approach some of the soldiers off to the left, talking to them in hushed voices before hurrying back to the tent. This time the pair appeared to be siblings, the boy with short cut blond hair and proud features which he shared with his younger sister. __**He **__noticed that, although these people seemed to be the commanders of this operation, __**he **__had yet to see one that was over 19._

_Before long however, what seemed to be the entire population of the tent emerged to stand in a line about 9 people long, the youngest in there being a 12 year old girl with a stern face, yet another thing which made __**his **__heart break._

_Together this group rallied the forces, calling names and chants that resounded from the mountain side from which they camped, often chanting in what seemed to be Latin or a language unknown to him. Once everyone was on their feet, weapons drawn and alert for the attack, the two boys that __**he**__ had seen earlier stepped forwards together and crossed their swords in a symbol of unity and calling out in the two different languages at the same time. This had obviously been the sign they had all been waiting for as, at that moment, they charged forward with a yell as loud as thunder, rushing down the slope and off to battle._

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Steve Rodgers jerked awake in his bed shivering madly as sweat glistened on his limbs, illuminated by a flash of lightning that filled the whole room. Glancing over at the glow in the dark clock on the wall, he groaned, it was only 4 in the morning, but there was no way that he could sleep again after that dream. Flopping back down onto his covers, he waited for his heart rate to slow before, reluctantly, heading towards his closet.

Checking his reflection in the floor length mirror, the soldier grimaced. His skin was too pale and his eyes were wide as a spooked rabbits, sighing, he reached for some clothes and pulled them on, slamming the door shut so that he would no longer have to look at the disturbing image.

Once dressed, he meandered towards the living room of Stark's penthouse, where they would all gather in the morning, thinking of flicking through some of the shows on T.V until he found one that would distract him, but no sooner had he lowered himself onto the luxurious sofa did he hear the sound of movement outside.

Instantly, his reflexes kicked in and he rolled up onto his feet, stepping cautiously up to the curtains that lead to the balcony trying to sneak up on the potential threat, but stopping when he spotted the crimson cape of his comrade.

"I take it you couldn't sleep either than Thor?"

With these words he stepped out into the open air, moving to stand beside his friend who was staring out into the lashing rain with n uncharacteristic look of nervousness on his face. So deep was he in his own thoughts that the words of the super soldier made him jump and grip his hammer tighter before recognising an ally and relaxing back into his former stance.

"You have remarkably good senses." He finally replied, "To awake with unease on such a night."

Steve leaned against the barrier, staring up into the cloud covered sky, taking deep breaths of the night air to calm his nerves before he replied, unsure of whether or not he really wanted an answer to his question.

"What do you mean 'on such a night' what is happening?"

The demigod sighed, shifting uneasily in the darkness, looking like he wished to be somewhere else but had been forced to remain in place. He remained silent for so long that the soldier almost gave up on getting an answer and turned back to the sleeping city but, when it finally came, the words were little more than a whisper.

"The air is in turmoil and a battle is brewing, tonight is the night that the whole thing ends, for good or for evil."

Those words seemed to charge the air, making the Captain's heart race once again and causing his mouth to dry out though that did not prevent him from asking the next question.

"Should we be worried?"

"It is not our fight."

"Yes, but should we be worried?"

When the giant turned to look his friend in the eyes, Steve noticed a great sadness that he had never seen there before.

"We should all be worried, for the fate of the earth hangs in the balance and a single sword could sway the tide of this war. But there is nothing we can do now but wait, and see what news the morning shall bring."

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**A/N: there you go, I hope you enjoyed it and don't be afraid to leave a review… please?**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Wow a better response than I expected and a big thanks for all those who favourite/ follow/ reviewed this new story, but don't worry, I'm not abandoning all the other ones for anyone who is wondering, just a bit of writer's block**

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"… reports of freak weather events over the cities near mount Olympus in Greece."

"We just had it confirmed that the storm last night was not a natural occurrence."

Nick Fury sighed as he surveyed the darkened skies before him, trying desperately to ignore the mounting pain in his temples as all of the agents bustled around the cramped room. Not too long ago the battle of New York had ensured that they now held all SHIELD business in a nondescript office building in the city, but the noise of the cars below was really messing with his head. Not only that however, but now reports of disturbing meteorological events were coming in from all across the globe and he really didn't have a clue not to make of it.

Giving in to his need for peace, the Director soon made his way out of the crammed floor and up to the roof of the building where he could survey the surrounding area in solitary peace… or so he thought.

No sooner had he taken his first breath of clean air, something so direly needed after so long in the stuffy command room, than he heard something shift behind him. Acting purely on instinct, he spun round and, in the blink of an eye, had his hidden gun trained on the source of the noise, though his companion was not what he had been expecting. Rather than the master criminal or maybe even a survivor of the last attack, the spy found himself facing a business woman in her late twenties and dressed up in a grey dress that clung to her thin frame.

Feeling a little embarrassed over his rash reaction, Fury turned back to the city thinking that she must have been a worker on one of the other floors that had come up for the same reason as him and not to attack. However, it was when she walked up next to him, leaning on the barrier at the edge of the building so that her golden curls fell as a wall between them that he remembered, SHIELD had bought out the entire building, there were no other companies there.

Trying not to display his alarm, he slowly turned to the woman, only to find her smiling at him, and amused light flashing behind her silver eyes… hang on, they did not look natural…

"About time you worked it out Nicholas; I was under the impression that you were more intelligent than that."

She said the words lightly, backing up a little to give him more space, though the Director barely registered this, instead he was wondering how on earth she knew his name and why she had sought him out in particular. Readying himself in case she decided to attack he turned to glare her down with his one good eye, hoping to intimidate her.

"And who the hell are you? Don't you know that this is private property?"

The woman laughed at this, shaking her head slightly and sending her curls bouncing around her shoulders, to the spy's surprise however, she also turned to face the city again, letting him out of her sights.

"Don't worry boy, I am not here to fight, just to give you a little warning… and an offer on behalf of my father."

The way she called him 'boy' set Fury's teeth on edge, the only people to have tried that before were the soldiers of Asgard that he had met during the last war. He did not like the way she spoke to him, as though he was of no threat what so ever and on a lower level than herself.

"I asked you who the Hell you are."

The woman sighed and turned to face him again, looking at his now fully visible gun before shaking her head and smiling.

"Put it away Nicholas, that isn't going to work on me and you already guessed that. As for who I am, I have a question for you first… What do you know of the Greek gods?"

The spy frowned but lowered the weapon slightly though not entirely dropping his guard. The question had surprised him yes, but that was no excuse to get sloppy, after all, in his line of work, getting to relaxed in any situation could soon lead to… unpleasant, consequences. Slowly, weighing each word before he spoke he composed an answer to the woman's question deciding to go along with her for now.

"You mean the deities of Olympus, Apollo, Zeus, Poseidon… those gods?"

At this her lips twitched slightly as though she wanted to smile again but was holding it back, instead she looked deep into his one good eye almost as though she was searching his soul.

"And what would you say if I told you they were real?"

Okay, what ever he had been expecting as a response, it certainly had not been this. Although it was true that this person gave out a similar aura to Thor, it was still rather hard to process the facts of what she was saying. Instead of working it out for himself, he decided to push her for more answers.

"Let me get this straight, are you claiming to be one of the gods? You do realise that they are just myths right?"

At this her eyes darkened, going from a fain silver to a stormy grey that echoed the sky above, when she next replied, it was in a voice was sharp as steel.

"I would be careful of what you right off as mere legends boy, many of the others are far less tolerant than I. You asked me who I am so I will tell you this; I am Athena, patron of scholars and goddess of battle strategy."

This time, he had anticipated her response correctly and was composed enough to only raise and eyebrow and smirk up at her. He was playing a dangerous game here, he could feel it, but if there were deities on earth similar to those on Asguard why had they remained hidden until now? Why had they not helped in the battle who's damage could still be seen spread across the city below.

"Is that so?"

The woman sighed with exasperation and seemed to try and calm herself before opening her eyes again to stare back at him, the slight light of amusement had returned, though they were still swirling dangerously in the stormy lighting.

"For a man who has dealt with the sons of Odin, one would expect you to be a little more open minded on what your people call myths. And, in response to the question you are undoubtedly asking in your head, we did not aid you because we were fighting our own war, one that has only just drawn to a close."

Fury remained silent for a moment after this, rather irritated to the thought that she had somehow managed to work out what he was thinking when he had been using his best poker face. Eventually he gave up and went back to leaning on the rain next to her in defeat, the pounding in his head reaching a higher tempo than ever before.

"If what you are saying is true, and I'm not saying that I believe you, then why have you sought me out? Why reveal yourselves now when your lot have obviously remained hidden for thousands of years?"

Now it was her turn to look uncomfortable, thought that did not please Fury in the way it should have, no, he could feel the waves of power coming off of her more clearly now that she obviously had stopped trying to hide it, making her earlier statement seem all the more viable to his mind. That was what was making him nervous however, whatever had caused such a powerful race to feel distressed was something he sure as hell didn't want to face. Finally, the woman, Athena, turned to face him again, a great pain in her clear eyes as she spoke.

"A great war has come to the attention of my brother as he searched the future. A war that will concern both your world and ours and one that neither of us can hope to face alone. Unfortunately, it appears that this fight is unavoidable and, despite the wound to his pride, my father, the Lord Zeus, has sent me here to request your aid."

At this the spy stiffened, another war? They had barely survived the first thanks to the Avengers and now they were wanting to pull them into yet another battle with beings that had only existed in legend before. Still, something sparked in his memory and he remembered her saying something about an offer when she had first appeared. Feeling as though he was grasping at straws, he latched into this last hope.

"You said you came with an offer, what was it?"

"We came to ask for your aid and, in return, we would give you our 3 best. Demigods like the Asguardian Thor to help you in the city before the battle. Do you accept?"

Now this had piqued his interest 3 of their best Demigods would mean that these people had to be pretty powerful, and if they were on par with the giant son of Odin then they could become quite valuable assets, still something in her last statement bothered him, she had said best, but not what they were best at. Not a man to make a blind deal, Fury quickly pressed the case.

"You said they were your best, but best what?"

"The 3 we will send you are Annabeth, my own daughter, our best strategist, Perseues, son of Poseidon, our best fighter and Nico, son of Hades, our best spell caster. Now I will ask you again Director, will you accept our proposal, these 3 warriors for the chance to save the world?"

She looked to be searching him again, making the spy uncomfortable to the point where he turned his back on her to be able to think through the pros and cons of this offer, finally he turned back to her a look of defeat clear as day on his face.

"Before I answer will you tell me one more thing?"

"Of course."

"Is this war really unavoidable?"

"Yes, it has been set amongst the stars and passed down by the fates, there is no way for us to delay the battle let alone avoid it."

At this, the director nodded and headed back towards the door he had exited from. Feeling a flash of heat on his back he turned to see that the woman had gone though it did not really surprise him, he hadn't expected her to hang around after getting his answer. A grim smile stretching across his scarred face, Director Nick Fury then pulled out a thin black phone and dialled a number with practised ease hearing an answer after the first ring.

"Hello?"

"Agent Hill, its me. Assemble the Avengers, it looks like they've got some work to do!"

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**A/N: There you go, I hope you liked it. Don't be afraid to drop a review either **


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Wow, such a good response, I love you guys so much but… um, the person that threatened to kill me if I didn't update er… I appreciate your enthusiasm, but if you think about it, if you killed me, you would never get a new update…so its kinda counter productive right? Now that's over with, on with the story**

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It had taken three full days, but finally, all of the avengers were now seated rather peacefully in the meeting room of the newly rebuilt Stark tower, though there was a slight problem… They were all bored.

"I can't believe he called us all here, in _my _home and is still keeping us waiting!"

Tony fumed for what was probably the 20th time in the last five minutes, not that anyone minded so much anymore, they had all got used to the billionaire's rather childish behaviour already, and, anyway, they were all thinking along the same lines. For the first time since the war, they had all been gathered in one place which could only mean one thing, something bad was coming, and that did not sit well with any of them.

In the far corner, the one furthest away from the entrance, the two assassins were sat stoically in chairs backed to the wall, their faces to the closed door looking completely composed apart from the fact that their eyes kept scanning the room anxiously as though searching for answers. Across from them, Steve kept fidgeting with a pen that had been left in front of him and Bruce was tapping away at a thin piece of equipment that he had pulled from his coat pocket. Surprisingly, the only one who did not seem anxious for the director of SHIELD to arrive was the god of thunder himself who was sat apart from the others, a rather gloomy aura around him that none of the others had been able to dispel, not even Tony with his ongoing plethora of jokes.

Suddenly, the solid oak door was thrown open making the inhabitants of the room jump and turn to the source of the noise, eyes instantly focusing on the imposing image of their boss as he stormed into the room looking to all the world like he was in a seriously bad mood.

"Okay, looks like I don't have to hunt any of you down for skipping the briefing, now I have something important to tell you so you better listen, you understand?"

He directed the last part to the man at the other end of the table who had just begun pouring himself a glass of some amber liquid that looked suspiciously like scotch from a flask at his hip. Fury sighed, he really could not stand Stark for longer than a few minutes, but he was, at least, trying to be a part of the team so the spy would try to give him a chance… for now.

"Right, well, it had been brought to SHIELD's attention that there is another threat coming which will result in another war…"

He broke off here as his words would have been drowned out by the noise of protest coming from the others. Silently, he stood there and let the complaints wash over him.

"So soon, we've only had about 2 weeks to recover from the last one!"

"I finally got the tower fixed yesterday, no way am I letting it get messed up again!"

"Now is not a good time to fight, there are other matters more concerning…"

Okay, Fury did not know what to make of the Asguardian's comment so he just let it slide, no doubt he would only receive a cryptic answer if he pressed the matter any further so he just allowed the others to continue, allowing them to vent out their frustration before he continued, however, things obviously weren't going to go that way.

"We only just fought one war, and now you expect us to fight again?"

Steve seemed indignant when he asked this question, after all, the super soldier had never been one fond of violence, rather ironic if you think about it, but the expression soon turned to one of shock when a quiet voice answered from the doorway making all of the team spin round to stare at the 3 teens who had just entered the room.

"You know, that is exactly the same thing we said."

The speaker seemed to be the youngest boy who seemed to be only around 14 and was hiding in the shadows of the other two though his eyes seemed to dare anyone to challenge him.

"Fury… why did you bring some kids into my tower?"

Now it was the new group's turn to glare at the billionaire for his last comment, they obviously disliked the idea of being called children, though, for the first time in a while, Thor seemed to have come out of his depression as he looked the teens over smiling broadly as he did so. Seeing that the older boy was about to respond, Fury quickly cut in to avoid an argument. Although he too was unhappy that their allies in this fight were young, he had learnt long ago never to judge people on how they looked.

"As I was saying, we are under the threat of another war, though, unfortunately, our sources seem sure that this is going to be harder to beat than the likes of Loki so, now, I introduce you to your new Allies. Now I'm going to let the brief you on the matter at hand because I was left under the impression that they new more about it than we did."

With this, the director pulled out a chair and lent back gesturing for the children to speak wondering slightly why Steve had not protested the use of children in war, but one glance at the Captain and he saw that he was staring at the smaller group in wonder, though he decided to pay no mind to it. With a sigh, the girl tossed her golden curls behind her shoulder and stepped up to the table,, looking like she was about to speak but she was cut off by the booming voice of Thor that made everyone else in the room.

"Ah, my little cousins, may I take it from your presence here that the fight went well with you? News of the war has yet to reach to halls of Asguard though I could not help but worry…"

Ignoring the odd looks they were getting from the others, the teens looked at each other before the older boy stepped forwards, smiling slightly though it clearly did not reach his sea green eyes.

"Yeah, we won, it took us 3 weeks of full on fighting, but we got there. It only finished yesterday though and we lost so many fighters…"

His voice trailed away at the end leaving the others all the more confused, the 3 teens did not look like they had just come from the battle field, though it was true that their eyes were hard and more than slightly dead looking, their skin was flawless without so much as a bruise to be seen, though that did not seem to bother the Asguardian as his smile only faltered slightly before he responded to the disturbing statement.

"That is indeed glorious news, though the loss is saddening. Do not grieve over much for your fallen comrades however my friends, they died a hero's death!"

Surprisingly this did in fact seem to cheer them up as their smiles turned a little more genuine but, before they could say anything else, a bored looking Tony broke into the conversation, seemingly oblivious to the tense atmosphere.

"Okay, can you guys either explain what you're prattling on about so that everyone can join in or just get on with the briefing? The rest of us have lives to get on with after this!"

The girl turned her piercing gaze over to the Iron man seeming to inspect him for a moment before shaking her head slightly and turning to Fury once again.

"I take it that my mom told you the basics when she met up with you?"

The spy nodded slightly before gesturing to the rest of the table, signifying that he wanted her to explain it to the assembled heroes making the girl sigh again and the boys roll their eyes in unison.

"Here we go again!"

The younger one muttered making his friends laugh slightly before the girl turned back to the avenger, her silver eyes flickering from one to another, seemingly assessing them before she spoke.

"Okay, this might be a little hard for some of you to accept but please bear with it for a moment. Now, do you guys know of the Greek gods of Olympus?"

Tony looked at her sceptically as all of the others nodded not seeing where this was going. When no one started laughing, proclaiming this a joke, he groaned and sunk further into his seat drawing everyone's attention back to him.

"Don't tell me you guys are the Greek gods, I've had it up to here with all those myths turning out true!"

There was a flash of lightning outside the windows seemingly to respond to his comment but the kids just laughed before answering.

"Close, but no cigar."

The younger boy answered grinning evily as everyone else just shrugged off the use of the old expression as the children being related to Thor, after all, he had called them 'cousin' earlier. Picking back up where she left off after slapping the boy on the top of his head, the girl continued.

"No, as Nico so helpfully put in, we're not the gods, we're demigods, children of Greece." She took a deep breath here before continuing, "But the threat this time… well, that's a different matter."

It looked as though the assassins had recovered from the shock of that statement faster than the others because it was Natasha that interrupted the blond this time.

"How come we never knew about you if you live here? Why didn't you help us in the war against Loki? Why come out of hiding now?"

At this, the older boy's eyes flashed dangerously and he stepped forwards. When he spoke his words were cold and sharp, like daggers being thrown at the black widow, making her flinch backwards slightly on instinct.

"We stay hidden to protect you mortals from the dangers of our world, we did not help you fight in the battle here because we were fighting for much higher stakes in the homeland against a far more powerful enemy and believe me, we would have given anything to have battled here instead of where we were at the time. We ask for your help now because the threat has become far greater than we can handle and we are trying to limit the number of casualties. Now, before you ask any more stupid questions, I suggest that you allow Annabeth to finish speaking!"

He seemed to growl the last part, his had gripping on to the girl's, Annabeth's, had almost unconsciously as she sent him a warning look. Taking a deep breath he stepped back though he appeared to be shaking slightly and the girl picked up from where she had left off, hastily apologising for his actions.

"Sorry about that, its just… we only just got out of one war were most of our friends were killed, and now we are told that we have to fight another one." She seemed about to cry when she said that, but she soon pulled herself back together. "Anyway, this time round is kind of a result of our last war, but before you blame us for this, hear us out. Before the gods, before even the titans, there were an ancient race named the primordials who were the literal incarnations of the elements. Over in Greece we were fighting a war against one of the most powerful, the goddess of the earth and the mother of the titans who was wanting to rise up again and destroy all life on the planet…"

She trailed off at this looking as though she was about to cry again and the boy from before, Nico, stepped up to take her place, looking far too serious for one of his age.

"We managed to lull her back to sleep eventually, though it nearly killed us, and we though the problem was over, but it seems that the others are awakening. Something that would not be a problem in and of itself, but… well, some of them aren't exactly pleasant and one of the most powerful ones happens to want to destroy everything at the moment."

With this, a stunned silence filled the room as the Avengers looked from one to the other, trying to work out if this was a hoax or not. In the corner by the window, Thor seemed to have lost his grin and was looking rather nervous which made all the others accept that this was probably the truth. Resigning to having to fight yet another deity, Bruce sighed and leaned forwards in his seat so that he could clearly see the teens.

"You say one of the most powerful… who is it that we are going to be fighting?"

The smaller group shared a look and a whispered conversation in some ancient language that seemed to make Steve snap out of what ever trance he had been in before as he looked the children over with a guarded expression. Eventually, the boy who had stared down the assassin before held his hand up and the others stopped speaking immediately, it was becoming clearer who the leader was in this little team.

Seeming to calm himself down a little and running his hand through his raven hair, the boy stepped forwards again looking as though he wished to be in any other place right about now.

"The one that we have to face, unfortunately, is the father of the seas, The Primordial god of the oceans, Pontus and before you ask, don't worry about finding him cause we know for a fact that he is trying to kill me."

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**A/N: There you have it, I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the little bit at the end. Poor Perce, already had to go through Tartarus and now yet another person wants to kill him **** anyway, thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Okay, thank you all again for all the support you are giving this story, it really does make me smile. For anyone who commented about Percy always being the one being attacked, there is a special scene in here just for you :D now, on with the chapter!**

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"So let me get this straight." Tony Stark pushed himself back in his chair, feet on the table, hands behind his head. "You are expecting us to believe that there are all powerful beings out there, that you're half human kids of them, and that even more powerful forces are after him?"

As he said the last bit, his arm stretched out lazily so that he was pointing at the green eyed boy, his some what amused expression being met by a hard glare that made the billionaire flinch slightly on the inside, though he managed to keep himself in place. Behind the fake mask of a carefree teen, he could tell that the boy was hiding someone extremely dangerous and, more than likely, mentally unhinged, it was terrifying.

Suddenly, to the avengers' surprise however, Thor, Nico and Annabeth seemed to be finding this comment hilarious and they all doubled over laughing while their friend glared at them instead. Finally, when she had regained control over her emotions, the girl turned back to the adults, still shaking her head slightly.

"So, you're going to tell me that, although you have met, and fought, the gods of the Norse 'myths' yet you will not accept our claim even when your friend vouches for our sincerity?"

Now it was the avengers' turn to look slightly abashed as they looked at anywhere but the three teens and the god that were grinning in victory. After all, it was true, to believe in one brand of legend yet scorn another as only a fantasy was rather hypocritical. However, it seemed that the band of demigods were not finished there, especially as the younger boy was still laughing, clutching his side as though he had a stitch.

"Any way, its Percy, it would be easier to list the immortal beings that don't want him dead, you could probably name them all on the fingers of one had."

"Nico!"

All the previous tension in the green eyed boy's, no, Percy's countenance had disappeared with that last statement as he turned threateningly to the younger boy, though his voice belied his own joking expression even as it was hidden from the others in the room. Be that as it may, the boy just kept going, Annabeth joining in whenever she got the chance.

"Let's see then, there's Ares, Zeus, Dionysus, Hera…"

"Atlas, Hyperion, Kronos, Triton…"

"Athena, Tantalus, all the monsters in Tartarus…"

"THAT IS ENOUGH!"

That one statement from Fury quickly silenced the kids as they turned back to the others with apologetic faces, though their eyes were still lit up with a teasing voice. Sighing and moving a hand to his temple, the director merely glared at the group daring them to interrupt as he continued speaking.

"Now, we need to get back on topic. You said that the one attacking us is Pontus, primordial god of the seas, yet you did not explain why he will be going after you in particular. Nor did you tell us why you came to us for help, nor how we can combat him if the time comes. So I suggest you get yourselves seated and give us a damn good explanation for the whole thing!"

Still looking rather sheepish the three of them quickly did as ordered, though they looked anything but comfortable in their new positions, none of them being able to sit still for longer than a few minutes at time and their eyes were flickering from face to face in a speed that had to be dizzying. Still, Nico managed to answer the questions posed to them, kind of.

"Well if we go with the obvious reasons and ignore everything else, its simple. Pontus is the primordial of the oceans, yet when he fell into his sleep, his domain was passed down. First to the Titan Oceanus in the reign of Kronos, and now to Poseidon in the reign of the gods. So that he can regain his full power, Pontus needs to dispose of the one in his place as soon as possible and he thinks the best way to do that is to attack the only mortal child of the sea god, which is Percy."

Everyone was quiet as they took that in until Banner raise his hand looking rather uncomfortable in the whole situation. Smiling warmly at him, the girl nodded her head, indication that he should just speak instead of seeking permission to express his thoughts.

"I thought, in the myths, that Poseidon had many demigod children such as Theseus and Orion, why does he only have one alive today?"

At this, the boy in question laughed once without humour before answering in a flat voice.

"No, before you start thinking that it's because the gods changed, its not. They made an oath around the time of the second world war, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades that is, that they would not have any more demigod children, they were too powerful and messing with the course of human history. Technically speaking, I shouldn't have even been born."

This caught the Captain's curiosity, them mentioning his original time, causing him to look up and look at them shrewdly before asking the main question on his mind. He had begun to think of something, and he really did not like where this was going.

"You say they were messing with the course of history… how were they doing that?"

For a moment, there was silence long enough for everyone to stop waiting for an answer, but, with an almost imperceptible sigh, it was the younger boy who answered, flinching away from the view of the super hero while he spoke.

"Back before you got frozen… did you, er, well, did you by any chance meet Franco, Starlin or Hitler?"

This caused Steve's eyes to narrow, but he nodded is affirmation, he really did not like the direction of this conversation. After short moment, almost as if the boy was composing himself for something, Nico finally stepped out from the shadows of his friends, becoming clearly visible for the first time and making the soldiers heart stop. A part of his mind took in the slim figure, dark hair and pale complexion, recognising him as one of the leaders from his dream, but the rest of it was lost in flashbacks. Noticing his team mate's distraction, Clint shifted forwards to study the boy closely.

Short, barely over 5"6, apparently only 14/15 with shaggy black hair that fell into equally dark eyes. He was thin, though that was not to say he was scrawny, no, the archer could see quite a bit of muscle on the teen, and his skin seemed to have found a way to appear both Olive toned yet deathly pale at the same time.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you look like Lyndon Johnson?"

This random comment from the assassin seemed to shock the boy, who had been braced as though he was expecting an attack, but soon a confident grin had taken the place of a slight scowl and he was shaking his head as though trying to stop himself from laughing.

"No actually, they tend to be far more focused on one of my other brothers like, oh, I don't know, the one that committed the holocaust or the two who backed him up when he started world war 2. LBJ was actually pretty sane for my family, even if he did start the war in Vietnam. I'm Nico by the way, Nico Di Angelo, son of Hades, god of the underworld."

At this, the Avengers were stunned, none of them really knew how to react to this announcement, after all, it had never occurred to them to believe that some of the most famous (and infamous) people in history had not actually been human. Still, it wasn't exactly hard to accept, after all, how could anyone with a normal mind have killed all of those people? Unfortunately, the first to recover from the shock of that last announcement was one other than the billionaire that had a problem keeping his mouth shut.

"Oh, and what about you grey eyes, you the illegitimate daughter of Zeus then, making it a full set?"

Faster than any of them could follow, Tony Stark, the supposedly unbeatable iron man, went from being seated in his chair to being pinned to the wall by a knife through the fabric of his t-shirt on either side of his neck. After removing him from this uncomfortable position, his team mates turned back to be faced with a 17 year old girl who was smirking evily and caressing a larger knife she had seemingly drawn from thin air.

"I'd be careful where you step Mr Stark, if you ad tried that on the real daughter of Zeus, you'd be dead by now. In actual fact, no I am not a child of the big 3 gods, but the daughter of Athena, goddess of Wisdom and battle."

With that she made the knife disappear with a flick of her wrist leaving no room to doubt that she was in no ways a normal person. Sighing slightly, the son of Poseidon rolled his eyes at her theatrics but turned to face an now irate looking Fury as he continued to answer the questions from before.

"Okay, back on track now before this actually turns into a fight that neither of us wants. The reason why we're coming to you know is because, well, we really have no other choice. We all just fought in a war that had a rather large death toll and we don't have enough fighters to survive another attack, Hades, we all just came straight from the battle field! Normally we would never get mortals involved but this is going to effect you too and we really want to minimise the casualties of this war. Finally, the way you combat him is pretty difficult, that's why we came here, to teach you how… if you will accept us as allies…"

He trailed off at that, glancing around all of the faces looking rather nervous. It confused Natasha, how open the boy was being now, there was no hint of a lie in his words but there was no sign of injury on his body. Also, the mood swings for the older two were pretty dramatic, one minute they would be laughing as though they were on top of the world and the next they looked as though they were imagining all the ways in witch they could inflict a slow, painful death upon you. Although a slight trace of this could be seen in the Nico boy, it wasn't anything like as dramatic as in the others, leading her to believe that it was not normal. Suddenly, the booming voice of Thor cut through the silent room, breaking her train of though half way through the examination of their new friends.

"Well, I for one will be happy to train with you once again my friends, it has been many years since I faced warriors of your standard and it will be good to go all out once again!"

His announcement seemed to shock all of the others out of their contemplation of the offer, and, although many of them did not wish to participate in yet another war, they could not help but be intrigued as to what made their friend so complimentary of mere teens. Seemingly happy with the resigned looks of the team as a sign of their acceptance, Fury rose to his feet and glared around the assembled heroes.

"Okay, I guess we will leave it there for now. Barton, Romanoff and Miss Chase, I want you 3 to come with me so that we can get the full scale of this situation down and start planning some sort of strategy of defence. The rest of you can do what ever you like until tomorrow morning. Then I suggest that we see what our new friends can really do. Dismiss!"

With that, he stormed out of the room with the mentioned people following him leaving 3 awkward avengers, 2 nervous teens and a broadly smiling god of thunder alone in a sealed room.

From where she was watching alone in her temple on Olympus, Athena sighed, she really had expected the director to have more sense than that.

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**A/N: there you go, I hope you enjoyed it. Now, I think, for this story, instead of me asking you questions like in the others, I will let you ask me them, you can ask what ever you want and I will try to answer them as truthfully as possible (so long as they aren't too personal or give away the plot) but otherwise, ask what ever you want **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: ugh, going more than a little hyper active now cause there is less than 12 hours until I can go get my GCSE results to see if I got into my first choice college… I really hope I do. Anyway, answers to a the questions I got.**

**Guest: I actually have each chapter scrap written on a word doc, then, every day, I go thorough and add details and emotions to the skeletal structure it had before to make it more interesting **

**Stephen: Yes, I do read all of my reviews, but I already have each chapter worked out so, although I do appreciate constructive criticism, I'm not going to make dramatic changes to the plot unless I think it is really worth it.**

**So, that's all I think… on with the chapter **

**WARNING: **This chapter has scenes of psychological and physical torture, just so you know.

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After a rather awkward evening of being poked, prodded, jabbed with needles and then punching scientist in the eye, Nico and Percy finally managed to get away from the lab that had soon become a torture chamber for them, and into the guest room they had been forced into taking. Sighing, the son of the sea all but collapsed onto his bed, rubbing a particularly sore spot on his shoulder even as he stretched back on the luxurious quilt.

"Sweet mother of Zeus, that was horrible."

All he got in response was a grunt that could have meant anything from the direction where his cousin had slouched against the wall, with the younger boy's face hidden from his sight, Percy decided to take it as agreement. Of course, they could have reviled their powers and stopped the experiments there and then, but both boy's were far more scared of a furious Annabeth than of needles so they decided not to break this place. Now however, both boys were beginning to regret that decision.

"Nikki, can you tuck me into bed, its cold!"

Anticipating the response of the other boy, the hero of Olympus quickly rolled sideways just in time to miss the lunging body of his cousin, unfortunately, he rolled a little too far and ended up crashing to the floor, soon to be attacked by the son of Hades. In this way, the two boys released all of the stress they had been unable to get rid of before, fighting away until the early hours as neither of them wanted to sleep. After all, when the mind was free to wander, you could never tell where it was going to end up.

Unfortunately however, this form of entertainment could only keep them going for so long before both boys ended up slumped, unconscious, against opposite walls, and that was when the nightmares started.

_All around Percy it was black, a harsh wind blowing against his bare torso chilled him to the bone, but he could not detect which direction it was coming from. He was alone, that much he knew. After a while, more senses began coming back to him, as though he was awakening from some lingering dream._

_His hands were bound together, fastened to a coarse surface just above his head and making his shoulders scream in protest, it felt like they were supporting his full weight. As he noticed this, he began to struggle once again against his bonds but a searing pain flashed through his body with every jarred movement. Finally, he gave in to the pain and returned to hanging limply where he was, the warm trickle edging from his burning wrists sending shivers down his spine._

_Next came the taste of copper, it filled his mouth to the point where he felt like he was going to gag on it, but , no matter how hard he tried, his mouth refused to open. Against his bruised and broken lips the rough material was like sand paper making him want to cry out, but confirming that the taste was in fact blood, though whether it was his own or not scared him._

_Now the sounds of movement began to reach his ears and he could hear some muffled sobs coming from somewhere by his feet. So full of pain and loss were they that it made his heart break, and his swollen eyes fly open, though the sight before him did nothing but make him feel worse._

_Down there, on the floor, curled up and deathly pale was Annabeth, though it looked more like a shade impersonating his girlfriend, after all, his wise girl was strong, beautiful, proud… not this poor, broken creature that lay before him._

_Trying to look at anything but the illusion, his eyes caught the glimmer of crimson tracks that covered his chest, standing out a stark red against the snow white flesh and making him panic. It was not his blood, that much he was sure of, but if there were no wounds to cause this, where had the liquid come from._

_Noticing his return to consciousness, a figure moved in the corner of the dark room, moving from the shadows into the faint ring of light cast by a single spluttering candle, though the being seemed to darken its feeble attempts at illumination even more. Seeing the face of his captor, Percy instinctively flinched away, gasping out when the movement tore open freshly healed scabs on his back but he could not help it, after 5 days of this unrelenting 'revenge' the reaction had become instinctual, something that pleased Kronos to no end._

"_Ah, finally beginning to learn who is in charge here then Mr Jackson, now I must say that is good news."_

_The Titan stepped even closer, so close in fact that Percy could smell his dank breath on his cheek, but the teen held his gaze steady and full of hatred, the only form defiance he could still muster in his current situation. But, as always, that was never the right thing to do. Quick as lightning, the immortal's face darkened and a resounding crack filled the room as Percy slumped forwards, his neck aching from the force of the blow._

"_Oh well, it seems I overestimated your learning capabilities, no matter, we can soon go back to the teaching. But first, tell me, after that last session, your throat must be really parched, I dare say that you are simply _dying_ for a drink, no?"_

_At this, Kronos pulled out a golden goblet from somewhere in his sleeve and the demigod instantly felt sick. Every day, once a day, the titan would do this, he would ask Percy if he wanted a drink and then he would proceed to the most horrifying part of the 'lessons' as he put it._

_Moving with the grace only an immortal could muster, the titan of time made his way towards the whimpering girl on the floor before pulling her to her feet by dragging at the roots of her hair. Once he had the daughter of Athena standing, he took a firm grip of her wrist before slicing it open with a hidden blade he carried, catching the warm streams in the golden cup before making heading back to where Percy was hanging on the wall, leaving her to bleed out on the floor._

_The first time his grandfather had done this, Percy had nurtured the brief hope that Annabeth would die from blood lost, die and get away from the pain that was being inflicted on her every waking moment, but that was part of the curse of Tartarus, there was no escape, not even in death. Any fatal wound would immediately heal itself, but the pain was still there._

_While he had been daydreaming, the horrid gag had been removed from Percy's lips, but he would have given anything for the offending piece of cloth to have remained in place because now it had been replaced by the brim of a sparkling cup that sloshed forwards, adding to the red rivulets that ran down his front._

"_How does it feel Percy? To know that you are the one that is causing her such pain? Doesn't it just break your heart that she ended up like this? I wonder how she will ever look at you again. Do you think she will hate you? Scorn you? Want to kill you with her own hands?"_

_As he spoke, the titan grasped the demigod's hair and pulling sharply back, causing him to gasp in pain. That one brief moment was all that his tormenter needed, forcing the cool metal between his lips and pouring the hot liquid down his throat. Although he tried to hold his breath for as long as possible, it was no use and soon the demigod was drowning, gasping for air…_

"…up! Hey, kid, WAKE UP!"

Percy's eyes snapped open and his hand instinctively reached for riptide, a part of him thinking that he was still down in the pit, still with Kronos and his endless 'lessons' but the concerned blue eyes of the man in front of him soon reminded the demigod of his surroundings and he allowed himself to fall limply against the floor once again, his heart hammering against his ribs.

"Hey, kid, you alright? You were thrashing like crazy there, and screaming like you were having your toenails ripped out."

The weak attempt at humour wasn't much, but Percy forced himself to laugh, the same way that he pushed the memories to the back of his mind and willed his pulse to slow. Before long, he was able to face the soldier who had slipped down to sit beside him, recognising him as Steve Rodgers, the man lost in time.

"Man that was a lame joke, but yeah, it was just a dream, I'm fine."

"Must have been one Hell of a nightmare to have you in that state, when you woke up I thought that you had gone insane for a moment there. What was it about?"

This reminder caused Percy to flinch away from the man who was trying so hard to be friendly, making him shut down so that it was with a dead voice that he responded, making the super soldier look round with concern in his eyes yet again.

"Nothing, it was just a dream after all."

For a moment, Captain America was silent, thinking through his next words carefully so as to bring the boy out of his shell once again. As much as he had mistrusted the kids when they had first appeared claiming to be half immortal, he could not help but feel sorry for the child beside him. Although the son of Poseidon had seemed so deadly and in control in the meeting this morning, the kid beside him could hardly be recognised as the same person, what with his madly shaken limbs and terrified expression. That, combined with the fact that Percy had been screaming like a man possessed when he had come running, was enough to pull at the older man's heart strings, making him desperately want to help in some way.

"You know, I never really put much stock in dreams, but I saw one of you guys the other night, that's why I was so shocked this morning."

This seemed to have caught the boy's attention as his head whipped round, eyes shining with confusion.

"What happened in it?"

His response shocked the soldier, he had expected the kid to laugh it off, not respond with a voice that was deadly serious. It was because he was unsettled that Steve actually blurted out the first thing on his mind instead of thinking first.

"Why are you taking it so seriously? It was just a dream, you said so yourself earlier, it doesn't really matter!"

At his words, the half blood began shaking his head, looking like a dog that was trying to shake itself dry.

"Not for us. To demigods, dreams are prophetic so we never ignore them, what did you see?"

The frank honesty surprised Steve once again and he leaned back against the wall, tilting his head back so that he was staring up at the ceiling when he next spoke.

"I saw hundreds of kids in armour arranged on a mountain, it looked like they were getting ready to battle. They you and that girl, Annabeth, came out and you spoke to them, giving them a speech and telling them to rest before an attack. You both looked horrible."

The soldier had expected the boy to find it disturbing or amusing, he had expected him to shake it off, not nod his head as though he remembered that very scenario.

"That was the morning before the last battle, Annabeth and I had only just made it back to the army. It was the day that we finally won that wretched war."

Although shock was coursing through his system at this new piece of information, Captain Rodgers turned back to the child of the seas, noting the mad light that had appeared in his ally's eyes once again. Unable to stop himself, he found his mouth asking the next question without his permission.

"You looked like the leaders of that army, so why had you just got back to it, where had you been before?"

At this, the boy turned to him, a coldness similar to the dead in his eyes and when he spoke, his words were void of any emotion, good or bad. Quite frankly, it scared the soldier almost as much as the words themselves.

"In hell."

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**There we go, I hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to ask away!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Yay, I am so happy, I aced all of my exams and now I am enrolled into the literature and history course I wanted. Now I get to pass the happiness on to you with a new chapter, enjoy!**

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His conversation from the night before was still sending little shivers down Steve's spine every time he thought of it, though now, under the harsh glare cast by the garage lights, it seemed more and more like the teen had been messing with him, the exact same thing that the soldier's friends were now suggesting.

"Honestly, this is why we keep telling you that you are too gullible Cap, the kid was yanking your chain for sure!"

Tony's voice came from underneath the body of a Mercedes he was in the middle of playing with, the only thing visible of the billionaire being his legs that stuck out at a strange angle, pale blue fabric contrasting greatly with the dark paint.

"As much as I hate to say it, I think that Tony is right. Although these kids do give off the feeling that they have seen too much, to say that they have been in hell is ridiculous!"

Although Steve heard the words of the doctor, he still couldn't shake the feeling that the kid had been telling the truth, at least partially, at the time, after all, he had looked to be in no state to be playing jokes. To the soldier's surprise, it was the archer that actually spoke next, looking to his partner as he voiced his opinion.

"I'm not sure about that, we were with that girl, Annabeth, for the whole day, even after she had finished briefing Fury. There was definitely something not right about her, her smile is forced and her happy personality looks more like an act than anything else."

Beside Clint, Natasha was stood silently, nodding her head in agreement and it was this that brought the others (bar Tony) up short. Here were two agents trained in character profiling, so, if they were claiming that there was something wrong with these kids then that must mean…

"Sir, Director Fury is requesting that you all go down to the 3rd training floor for the assessment of the demigods' abilities. He said that this is urgent."

With a soft clunk, the billionaire pulled one more thing from the ruined casing and rolled himself back out into the open, blinking rapidly as his eyes adjusted to the sudden influx of light.

"Okay JARVIS, tell him we'll be there in a minute, no need to get his knickers in a twist!"

~LINEBREAK~

After his talk with Captain America, Percy had decided that there was no way that he was ever going to get back to sleep again that night, so instead, he started out on a venture to find Annabeth, after all, the nightmares were never as bad when they were with each other. When he had finally found her, she was curled up, whimpering pitifully on top of her own bed, the covers twisted and tangled around her body. He stepped through the doors just as she began screaming.

Quick as thought, Percy had run across the room to scoop her up into his arms, rubbing her back soothingly while she shook and sobbed into his shirt, hugging him so tight it was almost painful, but he didn't complain. In the end, they had stayed together the entire night, wrapped in each other's arms simply to reassure themselves that they were both safe and away from that gods forsaken pit. Now, however, they were standing, separated by a thick sheet of bullet proof glass.

"Okay, so , tell me again, why do we have to do this?"

When the director of SHIELD had first said that he was going to test their abilities, the son of Poseidon had expected just a normal session I the gym, maybe doing some endurance tests or something, not to be locked into a heavily braced room with a slightly smiling Thor while his friends and the spy looked in at them like they were an exhibit in a freak show or something.

"We are doing this to test your abilities, I believe that Thor is the best person to pull out your full potential in a fight."

As he said this, the doors behind the one eyed man opened to reveal the rest of the avengers, all of whom were wearing expressions that ranged from amusement to mild curiosity or a guarded hostility. Sighing, Percy turned back to face the god, his hyperactive senses instantly taking stock of the room. There was no water, just an empty hall around the size of 3 athletics tracks.

"Sooo… how does this work?"

"Its quite simple fish boy." The voice coming from the speakers this time was quite obviously Tony now, and it made the demigod want to roll his eyes, but he remained firm, keeping steady eye contact with his soon to be enemy. "You and Point Break hit each other over and over again until one of you manages to bash the other's brains out."

Before the tannoy system cut out completely, Percy was pretty sure he heard snickering and a voice suspiciously like his cousins say something about kelp, but he was far too focused on the fact that the room around him seemed to be changing, as though it had reacted to the presence of its owner. Almost silently, the floor t one of the sides started slide back, revealing an Olympic sized swimming pool while sand started to pour out from another area where the lights had been cranked up, making that zone seem like a desert. That, however, was all he managed to notice before something hit him in the chest with the strength of a rampaging elephant, sending him fling back, crashing to the ground a good few meters back.

"Focus Percy!"

As he spat these words out, gasping for breath, he looked down to see that the hammer that had caused off of the damage was beginning to move back, as though it was being pulled by invisible strings. This was no time for a laps in concentration. Pulling himself to his feet, he tried to take stock of the damage and he almost sighed in relief. Although his chest had begun to burn like hell fire, he had been in far worse agony before, so that was not going to stop him. Noticing a movement not all that far in front of him, Percy recognised the fact that his opponent was probably trying to take advantage of his distraction and, without thinking, he instinctively pulled out riptide.

Feeling a disturbance in the wind just behind his left shoulder, he manoeuvred his blade into a block just in time to stop the hammer once again though he felt his feet slip as he was pushed forwards slightly, the soles of his trainers fighting for grip on the tiled floor. Dropping quickly into a forward roll, he used the force to make room between himself and the enemy, coming up on one knee, sword still trained on a now widely grinning Thor.

"The legends do not lie I see, but I am not a mere mortal Perseus, you will have to do better than that!"

As he spoke, the asguardian blocked both the demigod's feint towards his left hip and slash towards his shoulder with the shaft of his hammer before retaliating with a blow that Percy only just managed to avoid. Trying to keep out of reach, Percy backed up a little, using the blade in his hand to keep the space between them while he thought about his next move, but, despite his best efforts, the god was closing the gap easily. Making a split second decision, he lunged at his opponent, aiming for the right calf muscle before flipping the blade to his left hand mid swing, the change in angle creating a large gash in the giants left shoulder that sent Thor stumbling backwards. As its owner flailed however, the hammer still managed to clip Percy around the side of his head, making him see stars. Shaking his head like a dog, the son of the seas started backing away, slowly leading the duel back towards the source of the water.

For the some reason, Thor was still grinning as he followed Percy, eyes locked on the demigod's guard that had been lowered, seemingly through exhaustion, failing to notice the trick behind the younger mans actions. Even as the god of thunder lunged forwards, ready with his next strike, the teen took another step back, over the edge, sending him tumbling into the pool with a large splash.

For the Avengers watching from behind the glass, the whole fight seemed rather interesting, not many people were fast enough to counter the lightning fast strikes of the god, nor were they able to push against his strong blows, but when their new ally took a fall into the water, they couldn't help but laugh.

"For a supposed 'great hero' he isn't half clumsy, now he's in the water, Thor is going to win easily!"

Tony's voice cut through the musical sound of laughter in the little observation room, and the teens in there immediately stopped laughing to stare at the billionaire in shock.

"You have to be kidding right?" The younger of the two said, his eyes looking like he was questioning the older man's sanity, something that was sure to drive him up the wrong way seeing as though the boy giving him the examination looked more like a corps than anything else. "Perce did that on purpose, once we is in the water, it's his territory!"

Stark rolled his eyes in exasperation before answering in a patronising voice which made both teens glare at him out of reflex.

"Well boy, you see, when you have lightning, which is electricity, flying around, you must never go into any water, after all, everybody knows that water is a great conductor for the energy to pass through! Honestly, did you never go to school?"

Nico muttered something that sounded a lot like 'not in this centaury' before Annabeth stomped on his foot. Turning he steely gaze back to Stark, she looked like she was about to reply with a cutting remark, but before she could, she was interrupted by the quiet concern of Dr Banner.

"Um, I hate to interrupt, but Percy has been under the water for quite a while now, don't you think that we should go check if he is alright?"

At this, everyone's eyes flashed to the side of the pool where Thor was crouched down, scanning the water with a worried look, but, to the adult's surprise, the boy's friends merely waved it off.

"Nah, its fine, Percy can breath underwater. He is a son of Poseidon remember? But I think he is planning something bi… ah, there it is!"

The boy broke off to point at where the god had begun craning out over the water waiting to spot his opponent, but he was soon bound in the grip of a gigantic hand made of pure water. Over in the centre of the pool, Percy was now stood on the calm surface, his hand raised in the air as he commanded the liquid before him. However, the sighs of appreciation for this new trick were drowned out by a large bang. It appeared that Thor had managed to move his hand enough to summon some lightning, causing the water to explode outwards, soaking everything in the room except for the green eyed boy before him.

On seeing the gods shocked expression when he had been grabbed, Percy had been unable to hep smiling, even now, when his hold over Thor was broken, he still felt happier than he had in a long time. Maybe it was the extended amount of time he had spent under the water, such activities always left him feeling refreshed, but he thought that the cause was more likely to be the fact that he was able to fight full out against this opponent, but he didn't have to fear for his life, allowing him to enjoy every exhilarating moment of this duel.

Now both of them were back on dry land and, though he still allowed a tendril of water to wrap around him like a silken scarf, Percy gripped his sword in preparation for the next fight. About 500 meters away, Thor settled into a similar stance, preparing himself to charge. So focused was everyone on the fighting duo however, they all failed to notice the 3rd presence that had entered the arena. That is, until the glowing tip of a frozen spear appeared out the front of Percy's chest.

As his body crumpled to the floor, the weapon still pinned in his back, Annabeth screamed.

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**A/N: Okay, that was the new chapter, I hope you liked it. Don't be afraid to drop a review, you can ask me anything, though I will choose which ones to answer or not :P**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Okay, I'm back again, sorry about the cliffie in the last chapter, I just couldn't help myself. Don't worry though, my cousin has already tried to kill me for it so you guys don't have to. Now, as for who would have won the duel um… Probably Thor as Percy was still recovering from the giant war **** Thanks again for all of your support!**

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At the sound of the young girl's scream, everyone seemed to spring into action at the same time, all of them running towards the crumpled body of the boy even as a crimson pool started to grow steadily around his prone figure. Where as the demigods dropped down beside their fallen companion, the Avengers arranged themselves in a protective line in front of their hunched forms, staring down at the new attacker.

The new arrival was pale as ice, his skin giving off a slight sheen like the soft glow of a star. His eyes were so dark grey they were almost black, a sharp contrast with his platinum blond locks that fell in waves to his shoulders. All together, the attacker seemed to be no more than a handsome 20 year old business man judging from his light blue suit. However, this image was greatly marred by the feral grin fixed upon his face and the gleaming blade in his hand.

"Ah, yes, the earth's 'mightiest heroes' I wondered when I was going to get the chance to meet you!"

His voice was deep, but calm, and it carried with it a kind of soft power that froze everyone in place. Well, almost everyone. Forcing aside the adults, Nico pushed his way to the front of the line, a sword clamped in his right hand that seemed to leech the very light from the air around it, a dark glare fixed in place.

"Aether, so you will turn against us too? You will fight against our alliance when even Lady Hemera offers us her support?"

Although the woman's name meant nothing to the gathered adults, it seemed to hit the new arrival deeply as his eyes lost the slight sparkle of amusement they had held before died instantly and his eyes turned as dark as flint.

"You should watch your tongue child, some day you will push the game too far and end up with your father permanently!"

Despite the fact that this threat seemed to drop the temperature in the room several degrees, the boy was not perturbed, instead, he only brought the weapon up to a ready position, the shadows in the room shifting towards him as he thought to restrain his anger.

"You think I will be afraid of a being who only possesses the courage to attack from behind? No, only a coward attacks when their target's back is turned!"

To Fury, the sight of the two beings facing off was a rather intriguing sight. Around the boy the air was cold and dark, the shadows of everything in the room flickering around dangerously as though they possessed a life of their own. However, even stranger was the fact that his opponent seemed to have begun to glow, wiping out the darkness all around him even as he appeared ready to pounce, his features twisted in anger, but, just before he pressed forwards, he froze. All of a sudden, his body locked up and he cocked his head to the side as though listening to something. This carried on for a few seconds and a terrified look flashed across his face quickly before he sighed and relaxed once again.

"What ever, I only came here today to talk to them." Now he turned to the gathered members of SHIELD, all of whom were being held in place by invisible bonds. "You should not get involved in this war, it does not concern you! You have been warned."

As he said the last few words, his form began to flicker before he faded all together, like a mist being blown away, leaving the Avengers free to move once again which they gladly did. After checking the entire room over once again to make sure that it was free, they all turned back to the girl who was still fussing with the body of her friend. Slowly, as though he was asking for permission, Doctor Banner took up the boy's wrist feeling for a pulse. After a second, his face darkened with worry.

"He's still alive, just, but he's lost a lot of blood and if he loses anymore… Well, I think we should just take-"

"Put him in the pool!"

The words from Annabeth silenced what ever Bruce was about to suggest as he stared at her ashen face in shock. From his position directly opposite her, he could see the thin mist of tears in her eyes that she was refusing to let fall, but he did not do as she said.

"If you put him in water, then the wound will never stop, he will just bleed out! We need to tae him-"

"I told you to put him in the water. Just trust me, it will help him!"

As she said this, the daughter of Athena grabbed the boy's arms and started half lifting, half dragging, him to the edge of the water. Catching on to her intentions, the son of Hades quickly grabbed the boy's legs and helped until they reached the ledge where he let go, allowing her to jump in with her unconscious body. When her head broke the surface once again, she shot Nico a look which he understood immediately.

"Guys, lets go, leave them down here for a moment."

"But what about…"

"I will answer your questions later, just, lets get up stairs first."

He shot the super soldier his signature death glare, keeping the other's from resisting as he forced them out of the room and up to the briefing area from yesterday. Once there, he slouched into one of the seats and waited for the silence to break. It seemed like, this time, Tony Stark was the first to recover.

"W-what the hell was that?"

He choked out as he reached for one of the bottles in the mini bar next to his seat, pouring himself a glass before passing it round the others. When it reached Nico, he poured himself one before giving it back to the billionaire, ignoring the indignant looks from the adults around him.

"Hey, you're still under-"

He silenced the archer with a look and took a quick gulp of the liquid before answering, allowing the burning liquid to infuse some heat into his normally cold body and revelling in the feeling. When the slight tingle of the alcohol had faded, he finally answered.

"According to my birth certificate, I'm 84 so I think I'm legal. Anyway, that was Aether, god of light and one of the stronger primordials. We were hoping that he would remain neutral in this fight, but now he shows his true colours and messes up our plans, I think I deserve a drink."

By the time he had finished his mini rant, all of the adults were staring at the supposed pensioner, shock clearly registering on their faces, and stark disbelief on some of the others. The last made him laugh slightly as he took another drink.

"If you guys are who I think you are, you probably have a file of every missing person. Look up the name Nico Di Angelo from a time around the 1940's it'll tell you that, when I was 10, I disappeared with my 12 year old sister Bianca when our mother, Maria, was found dead in the hotel we had been staying at."

He flinched a little at the last part of the statement, as though he was brining up something he did not wish to remember. The assassins noticed this small jerk and made a mental note to check that out later wondering what would have happened to make the fearless warrior who had faced down a god in front of them, turn into a lost looking teen. Steve, however, was staring at the boy with new eyes, amazed to have found someone from his own time frame, a matter that greatly intrigued Bruce as well as he leaned forwards, eyes gleaming.

"What happened to you then, as I take it that delayed aging is not a trait of your family from past examples. Were you frozen like Steve?"

The boy laughed a little at this, shaking his head before he leaned back into the chair, allowing his head to loll backwards so that he was facing the ceiling when he answered.

"Close, but no. We were locked in a magic hotel where the time stream is different to the rest of the world. My sister and I thought we had been in there for a month, when we came out, it had actually been 70 years." He flinched a little at this again, it seemed to be an ingrained response when ever he talked about this 'Bianca', "yeah, life sucks, but don't you have some more important questions to be asking, rather than interrogating me about my past and drinking habits?"

For a second they had all been so caught up in this new discovery that they had forgotten about the bigger picture, something they were not happy about, but Steve shook away his surprise to gather more information that they sorely needed.

"When that guy, Aether you called him, arrived, why couldn't we move?"

"That's an easy one, all gods emit an aura, you've felt it with Thor I bet, but with the primordials, its like a physical force and it causes your body to lock down. It even effects all the other gods at first, if you aren't used to it. And, before you ask, Annabeth, Percy and I have spent the better part of a year fighting one of them so it doesn't effect us as much."

Okay, so that was a disturbing revelation to Nick Fury's mind. How the Hell were they meant to fight an enemy that they couldn't even move near? This situation was looking bad, especially as the being had come to Stark towers just to speak to them, but seemed to have no qualms about hitting a kid from behind. This last bit brought another part of the past situation back to mind as he asked after the kid.

"Why did you allow Ms Chase to take Mr Jackson into the water rather than up to the medical bay, and why did you make us leave? If something goes wrong, it would be better to have trained medics in the area just in case!"

At this, the boy in front of him shook his head again. Still glaring at the cracks at the ceiling, it was hard to make out the smirk on his pale face.

"Nah, he'll be fine. Out of all us cousins, he gets the best abilities for combat meaning that he just needs contact with water to heal himself. When he comes back up here, he will be perfectly okay, just a little tired. I forced you all out of the room for all of your safety, Percy might get a little… violent, when he wakes up."

His cringe was clear for everyone to see now and it seemed like he had experienced this before and learnt that particular lesson the hard way, but then, it did not make sense as to why he would leave the girl with him.

"What about Annabeth?" Steve asked, "Isn't she going to be in danger if she remains with him then?"

"Nope, she's the only one that can calm him down. Anyway, those two hate to be apart, especially after the accident…"

His voice trailed off as he looked down at the super soldier, eyeing him warily.

"I know Perce told you about that, when you woke him up last night."

"But you were asleep!"

"No, I was in a trance, I don't sleep anymore, it makes things worse. Between the 3 of us, we have seen more than you would ever experience in an immortal life time. When I was looking for something to help us in the underworld, I was captured and dragged through the very depths of hell and then, when they tried to rescue me, Annabeth started falling and Percy went with her in an attempt to keep her safe. It didn't work."

At this, there as absolute silence until Natasha decided that she wanted to know more. Disregarding the tense atmosphere, she leant forwards, elbows on the table s she examined the pale boy.

"What happened then, they must have escaped, seeing as though they are here now, but how?"

Locking his eyes with hers Nico did not even blink when responded, the words falling like weights from his lips in a voice so low that all the avengers had to lean forwards to hear.

"When they fell, they were captured by an old enemy, and tortured. They finally managed to escape when his strong hold was attacked and they made it out in time for the final battle. They helped lead the soldiers to victory, but the pit took its toll on them. When they first came out, they were pretty close to insane and now, well, now I don't think they have improved much at all."

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**A/N: there you go, I hope you enjoyed the chapter **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: and I am back yet again, still trying to do the mad, update a day pace cause if I don't I'm kinda worried that I will lose interest in this story. Anyway, a big thank you for everyone that reviewed, and here is the new chapter!**

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In the silence that followed, the chattering voices of the absent teens that drifted through the doors sounded almost like a gun shot to the frozen adults. Grinning slightly at the reaction he had managed to invoke, the boy turned to the door expectantly as it opened revealing his friends.

"Took you guys long enough, I was almost thinking that we were going to have to send someone down and make out your little… private, session."

He smirked at the words, acting to all like he hadn't just revealed these people to have a rather loose grasp on their sanity, his grin stretching wider than it ever had before, the only indication that he had actually been worried for his cousin.

"So centurion Shish-kebab, what do you have to say for yourself?"

To the other people in the room, this comment made limited sense at best, even Thor looked as though he was struggling to comprehend the meaning behind the words, but Percy merely did a mock salute before replying as he slouched down into an empty chair, pulling Annabeth onto his lap and laughing happily.

"Nothing to report Preator death head!"

To anyone without the rudimentary training that SHILED provided its operatives, this exchange, though slightly abnormal in content, was almost stereo typical banter between close friends, even when the girl joined in, the easy atmosphere between the teens remained, but the Clint, it was hard to miss the tension in their bodies and the undercurrents that bled into every word. Through this seemingly mindless exchange, the three of them were passing on something that they wanted to keep hidden, that much is for certain.

"You know, I find it hard to trust people who try to hide things from their allies, so, if you want us to work with you, I suggest that you actually tell us what you are talking about rather than using secret messages."

Most of the people turned to the archer in surprise, looking at him as though they were worrying about his sanity now, but he kept his gaze firm as he stared down the girl, the only one that was looking his way. After a moment of this silent staring contest, she sighed and shrugged her shoulders, looking to the others for confirmation before she spoke up.

"First things first, you have really sharp senses, and as for what we were saying, it was nothing special. Percy and I sent a message to our friends in a certain… place, asking them if they had heard anything, apparently, nothing has come up, but they are still looking. To find out that the ranks are not forming how we would have expected is concerning, but it just means that we need to keep a closer eye on things."

For a moment, her eyes seemed to flash from warm and happy, to a cold that cut through everyone it crossed, but s soon as that dark look came, it went. However, her audience did not write off this change as merely a trick of the light, not any more, after what they had just found out.

"Nico was just telling us some background stuff, like he was from the 1940's," Steve started off, testing the waters with his gentle tone whilst prodding for some answers to the many questions in his mind. When the other 2 didn't react to this revelation, it only seemed to confirm it more, but the soldier did not stop there. "and how you two fell into hell trying to save him."

The response to those words was immediate as it was shocking. Admittedly, Percy had said something along the same lines the night before when he had spoken alone, well, seemingly alone, with Steve, but that had not prepared him for the couple to go stark white and for their faces to close up immediately, the open expressions from before immediately hardened and the light of laughter in their eyes was promptly killed.

"And?"

That one word was spoken little more than a whisper, though it held enough venom to make everyone flinch. It looked as though the reminder had pulled up some rather unpleasant memories. Although he had meant to press on with the matter, the frankly dead look in the eyes of those, who in his eyes were merely children, made the soldier's heart break and he quickly dropped the topic.

"Oh, nothing, doesn't matter."

Rolling his eyes as his team mates lack of courage when faced down by two kids, Tony just snorted and reached across for the bottle, occupying himself with refilling his glass before he switched back to the topic from before.

"So you said that you contacted people at a place, do we get to know where that is or are you still set on keeping secrets?"

Although this helped a little in lifting the tension in the room, it did little to help the demigods as they cast around for something they could say without estranging themselves from their new friends, trying to find something that would sound both friendly, but would encourage the others to keep their noses out of things that did not concern them.

"Actually, no, not until it is really desperate at least." Annabeth finally spoke up, looking over to see the irritated look in Fury's eye and quickly carrying on with an explanation. "There are only 2 places in the entire world that are actually safe for children of our family, places where we don't have to worry about things trying to kill us 24/7 so we don't really want to reveal where it is. Anyway, most of the kids at our home are injured so we are only trying to protect them from our 3rd war in 3 years."

Okay, that seemed to have done the trick of shutting them up nicely as they were all giving her strange looks, maybe about the war thing or maybe about the whole worrying about being killed aspect of what she just said but, quite frankly, she couldn't have cared less and it was clear to all that she had something else on her mind. Growling slightly under his breath, Nico downed the last of his drink before replacing his glass on the table and rubbing his temples as though trying to dispel a head ache.

"Did you get anything out of that message? Who did you talk to?"

"When we sent the message, Reyna, Jason and Chiron were in the room, but we managed to speak to Rachel too."

At this, the son of Hades' head snapped round faster than anyone could really follow, it was probably fast enough to give him whiplash, but he didn't seem to notice at the time. Instead, he fixed his eyes on the still pale Annabeth with a new kind of hope in his demeanour.

"You did? What did she say?"

For some unknown reason, when the girl closed her eyes as though she was trying to remember something, all the adults felt the urge to lean forwards as though they really needed to hear what was to be said next. When the daughter of Athena finally spoke, her eyes remaining closed, it was with a haunted voice that filled the entire room.

"An ancient force long since forgotten,

Will rise above all of earth begotten.

Of light and darkness both must clash,

For while both live no peace shall last.

And the power of the ocean deep,

A hero's mind he'll seek to keep,

For Fire, Lightning, Earth and Scorn,

Must gather west to face the Storm."

"That." Thor managed to sigh out. "Does not sound good."

The teens nodded, agreeing whole heartedly with the god though the others around them seemed not to understand the true significance of the thing that they only classed as mere fancy. In the end, it was the black widow who decided to ask the question that was on everyone's mind.

"Okay, so, she gave you a poem. What does it mean and, Thor, why have you gone pale?"

It was true that the god of thunder had gone almost white as a sheet at the words spoken by the 17 year old girl, and it was rather a strange sight to behold, but the giant seemed to be too deep in thought to answer, or even register the question so, it was the son of Poseidon who answered, though he did not look happy at the attention he was receiving.

"Rachel, well, Rachel is our Oracle and she can sometimes predict the future. When she does, she passes on a prophecy that details what will happen, but they are never really clear. That thing was a definite one and it isn't the worst we have ever got, but it is still bad."

He broke of there as though he was lost in his own thoughts once again. From that moment on, the demigods seemed to have drifted off into their own worlds, only speaking occasionally to each other in the language they had used earlier, leaving the others to try and work it out for themselves.

"Well, at least we have some leads towards what is going to happen, that's always nice!" Clint commented, trying to cheer up the rest of his team mates, but the attempt was feeble at best and the effect soon wore off. In the end, everyone seemed to turn to the two resident scientists who were glaring at the table.

"At first, it sounds simple, but I don't know about it." Banner mused, pushing his glasses further up his nose with one finger. "What do you think Tony?"

The billionaire only shrugged, staring at a knot in the wood, his forehead tensed with concentration, but, as the others began to turn away, he finally spoke.

"From the phrasing of it, and the way it was said, I would say that the list, "Fire, Lightning, Earth and Scorn" are people, and possibly the "Storm" too, but I can't be sure about that, it could just be a metaphor for a fight…"

"What I'm worried about is the part about keeping a hero's mind, it sounds way too much like what Loki was trying here earlier."

In the end, none of them were able to get more than small scraps of information from this short poem and all of them settled down to sleep that night with nothing to show for their efforts but a splitting head ache.

Although it still seemed to amaze Steve that they were all accepting what they had first written off as a myth so easily now, he couldn't help but feel that everything was real despite all that. He guessed that it had something to do with how seriously Thor was taking the whole situation. Still struggling with the irritating riddle, the soldier swiftly prepared himself for bed, but, what felt like only minutes after his eyes had slid shut, a slight shift in the room around him made him jerk up right in his bed.

On first inspection, nothing seemed to be wrong, the room was dark, and the glow in the dark clock on the wall was indicating that it was only 2am, but something had disturbed the super soldier and he was not going to settle back down until he had found out what. Silently, he crept over to his door, pulling it open just in time to see a shadowy figure ghost past.

Deciding against calling for help, he quickly followed the shape out into the hall, staying far enough back so that he would not be noticed but trying desperately to figure out who it was moving around at this time. On this floor, only his team mates and the demigods should have been present so he should have just called out to who ever it was, but something held him back, stopping him from drawing the figures attention.

For about 5 minutes he followed his quarry through the deserted hallways, never once being in the right place to see the person's face when he stepped lightly past a patch of moonlight that fell on the floor, but they eventually ended up in front of the lift where the doors opened silently. Quietly swearing to himself, Steve changed directions and headed up the stairs, checking the lift on every level and noticing that it appeared to have stopped on the top floor.

It was slow going up the stairs, and even with his enhanced endurance, Captain Rodgers was still finding the 19 floors a formidable climb, his feet moving sluggishly due to fatigue before he had even really left his room, were now weighing him down so that his progress was slow at best meaning that he was going to be too late. Urging himself to move faster, he forced himself up the last flight of stairs stumbling into the lounge just in time to see the figure jump off the edge of the landing platform.

Letting out a strangled half cry, Steve rushed out into the cool night air and looked down to see a dark shape catch the falling boy on its back, and together, they rode off into the night air, disappearing quickly in the gloom, but not before he had been able to make out a flash of pitch black hair and gleaming, sea green eyes.

And that was the night that Perseus Jackson, son of Poseidon and 2 time saviour of Olympus, vanished off the face of the earth.

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**A/N: mean, I know, but I just couldn't help myself, sorry. Anyway, there was the new chapter, I hope you enjoyed it! Until the next time my friends!**


	9. Chapter 9

It had not taken long for Steve to ascertain his suspicions, and it had taken even less time for the demigods to react to their friend's disappearance. As soon as the two teens had worked through the entire building to check again they gathered in a corner of the room talking rapidly in that strange language again. Just hearing the sharp, bitten off phrases that passed between them was enough to make the soldier's skin crawl as he remembered the battle scene from his dream. Hopefully, things would not become so bad this time around.

While the children bickered back and forth, their words never raising above a certain level though both seemed to be getting increasingly agitated, the avengers gathered in the board room trying to decide what should be done about the situation, but the truth was, none of them knew what to do with the matter other than to keep Fury out of it. They did not yet know why the boy had left and I they were to tell the spy now, he would probably start having yet another paranoid fit about security breaches. In the end, they hadn't really come up with more than this agreement when the doors were thrown open and the demigods walked in, Nico clutching a single feather that looked to have come off a Raven. Flopping down into one of the waiting chairs, he sighed heavily before waving the item around.

"Well, at least we know that he left willingly, Blackjack listens to no one but Percy and we found this on the landing pad. Why he disappeared however, well, that's an entirely new question."

Despite the fact that it was long before dawn in New York, Steve had found that the children were actually still awake when he went to get them. They claimed that they had just got carried away talking, but he suspected that it was something more. Nico had said that he was lucky because he could escape from dreams, but, from the state of the bags beneath the girl's eyes, it seemed like she had long since given up on the concept of sleep. As he was studying her however, the girl was shifting around in one of her pockets as though she was looking for something, her foot tapping rhythmically against the spray bottle on the floor by here chair, though there was no reason for it to be there that the soldier could see. Finally, her hand camped over something, pulling out a fat, golden coin for the others to see as she turned to face them.

"Look, we really need to contact our friends, and you're gonna have to hear what they say too so I guess we are just going to send the message here. Don't be alarmed, its just a branch of Greek magic called an Isis message, it can't hurt you."

As she spoke, she passed the coin to her friend and reached down for the bottle, something that was not lost on the others, especially as Nico had just pulled out a torch from one of the pockets in his over large aviators jacked.

"So, you're saying you are going to contact your friends, at 3am using nothing but a coin, water and torch? Okay, that's enough, you guys are officially crazy!"

Tony threw his hands up in the air, spinning slightly on his chair as he said this, the pale blue light of the arc reactor illuminating his face and making his last comment seem rather hypocritical, something that seemed to amuse Annabeth greatly when she turned to glare at him.

"Well, unless you have a better way of summoning a rainbow, this is the only way we can do it now that Percy isn't here!"

She tried to remain firm when she spoke, but she wasn't fooling anyone, especially as her voice broke on the last part of her sentence, but everyone, besides Natasha, pretended not to notice, even when she began to play with a slim silver ring on her left ring finger absentmindedly. When she noticed this gesture, something had seemed to click in the Russians expression and she went over to sit beside the girl, looping an arm around her shoulders comfortingly, something that came as a major shock to the others.

Trying to ignore the fact that the deadly black widow was actually acting human for once in her life, Tony only smirked at the girl, doing his own part to cheer her up by trying to rile her up again. After all, it was much easier to deal with things when you were feeling irritated than when you were upset.

"Oh, come on, does the word genius mean nothing to you pagans?"

He smirked at the flash of anger in her eyes, but soon turned to stare up at the ceiling, called up in a clear voice that surprised the others.

"JARVIS, you think you can simulate a rainbow in this room for us?"

For a minute there was no reply, and Steve heard Nico lean over and whisper something suspiciously like "And he calls us crazy" in Annabeth's ear, but the next, a band of multicoloured light flooded through the dark room, making the demigods look up in shock and the billionaire grin more than a little smug as he took in their confused expressions. Shrugging it off slightly, Nico seemed to smirk as he thought of something.

"Hmm, maybe this will work."

Without warning, he flipped the heavy coin into the light and called out in a serious voice that had everyone, once again, questioning his sanity.

"Yo, Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Hazel Lavesque, camp half-blood!"

Surprisingly, the coin never landed on the table on the other side of the projection like everyone had been expecting it to, instead, it seemed to shimmer the second it reached the lights before disappearing entirely. Then, not one moment after the coin had vanished, a ripple passed over the image and it changed to be one of a young girl sitting on the steps of a black cabin as she looked out over the sea. Her leg was in a cast and crutches leant upon the steps next to her, but she seemed not to notice the message. Moving round to the other side so that he could see her more clearly, Nico's grin became rather creepy before he spoke, a heavy Italian accent as he spoke.

"Good evening Ms Lavesque, lovely night don't you think?"

The girl almost shot out of her place as she turned round to face the message her terrified countenance suddenly turning to one of fury when she caught sight of the gangly boy that was facing her through the panel, her irritated growl turning into mist around her face indicating that the winter was coming in.

"Nico Di Angelo, I swear to Jupiter, if you ever do that again, I am going to…"

Her threat was cut off by the boy's laughter and she ended up just grinning back at him, all things forgiven. Now that he could see her face, Steve found himself looking at quite a cute 13 year old girl with caramel ringlets and coffee coloured skin. With a jolt, he recognised her as the youngest general he had seen in his dream/ vision thing.

"Sorry Hazel, just wanted a quick word."

She rolled her bright eyes at that and simply shook her head slightly while indicating with her hand that he should go on. She seemed like she did not trust herself to speak to him yet.

"Um, so, we were wondering… have you seen Percy anywhere?"

The question seemed to wipe the happiness off of her face immediately and she turned round more so that she had a better angle to look at them from. Now, she was probably able to see the other people in the room as well, but she simply smiled slightly at Annabeth before turning her glare to the son of Hades.

"No, I thought he was with you?"

Her voice was inflected with worry at the end making it seem more like a question than a statement, but something suddenly flashed behind her eyes and she called for someone behind the message to get someone named Chiron.

"No, I guess he didn't go back to camp then huh? What's the matter by the way?"

The boy's questions seemed to snap Hazel out of her thoughts as she began to chew absentmindedly on her bottom lip before replying.

"Blackjack kind of freaked out earlier before he took off, I thought that maybe Arion had done something to annoy him, but I guess not."

Things fell silent for a minute, and the sound of hooves could be heard in the background seconds before a middle aged man stepped round the side of the cabin, only, where his legs and the lower part of his body should have been, was the body of a pure white horse. A sound of suppressed shock went round the room as the avengers saw their first centaur, but other than that, they remained silent.

"Nico my boy, is there a problem at your end, it is a little late for a casual call if not!"

His smile has kind, and it warmed Steve from deep inside, like he was looking into the face of his father once again. Apparently he wasn't the only one to feel such as bothe the demigods relaxed visibly at the sound of his voice.

"Sorry Chiron, can't say that this is a casual call. Percy's gone missing… again. We were wondering if he was back at camp, but he obviously isn't. Do you have a way to contact Lupa to see if he's in San Fransisco?"

For there the conversation went to depths that none of the avengers, bar maybe Thor, could understand, and they ended up just looking around quizzically at each other. In the end, it seemed like the only one's who had actually been paying attention to the screen besides the demigods who had summoned it were Bruce and Tony.

"Have to say, that is an amazing way of communicating."

Banner was still looking at the place where the rainbow had been, blinking slightly as if he was trying to see it once again, but there was no time for them to indulge the scientists' fantasies now and Steve spoke up, cutting off what ever Tony had been about to say in response.

"Well, what did you find out in that then, the conversation got a bit hard for us to follow."

He quickly tagged the last bit on when he saw the surprised look in the boy's face in front of him, but, in the end, Nico just slouched back round the table before collapsing into his empty chair. To the soldier, it looked almost as though he was wanting to slam his head into the solid oak of the table, but the teen resisted the urge.

"Nothing, that's what we found out, absolutely nothing other than the fact that his Pegasus went mental and he isn't at either of the camps."

Choosing to ignore the mention of mythical creatures in order of finding out facts (and because he really didn't want to have anything else to think about this early in the morning,) Steve started pacing as he thought.

"Who was that girl, is she definitely reliable?"

At this, he was almost brought up short by the growl coming off Nico, but he carried on trying to ignore the kid when he wasn't answering questions.

"_Hazel" _He stressed the use of the girl's name, "is my little sister, and yes, she is reliable."

Captain America nodded slightly at this, but before he could turn and move back again in his round, a cold hand reached out and grabbed his arm, pulling him up short. After her little speech about the rainbow earlier, everyone had just presumed that Annabeth's withdrawal from the conversation was due to grief at the disappearance of her friend, but now, looking into those cold grey eyes, it was obvious that she had been distracted for an entirely different reason. The daughter of Athena had resorted to doing what she did best, she had been thinking.

"The answer is in the prophecy. Someone said earlier that the nouns, 'Fire, Lightning, Earth and Scorn' sounded like they were being used as names for people and you're right, they are. 4 people are going to have to go west and face the 'Storm' but that wasn't a metaphor for the war, its Percy. When he fights, I mean, when he goes at it for real, a hurricane blows up around him, after all, another name for Poseidon is 'storm bringer', it makes sense."

Nico leaned towards her now, his expression guarded and his words cautious as though he did not want to believe what he was saying.

"Yes, it does, and that works with what it said the line before about keeping a hero's mind. I can't think of anyone that deserved that title more than him. But Percy's fatal flaw is loyalty so it has to be some pretty strong control and for that sort of magic you have to be really close to cast it. The problem is, I don't think anyone other than Aether actually went near him and manipulation isn't his style."

"You know." Clint spoke up, a dark look in his eyes as he observed the demigods like they were a bomb about to explode around him. "It did strike me as odd earlier but I ignored it. But don't you guys think its weird that the Primordial god of light or whatever he is, would use a weapon made entirely out of ice to try and kill him."

The room went silent and Bruce sucked in a quick breath, realisation dawning across his pale face.

"Unless killing wasn't the intention…"


	10. Chapter 10

Far up I the mountains, where the peaks grow jaggedly towards the sky, on the side of the mountain far out of reach from Apollo's searching gaze, sits a palace of black onyx. Encased in these dark walls, there is no light to be seen, and no air to breathe, the only sensation coming from that of the midnight water that floats around the halls and rooms. Not many people could breach this fortress and seek to survive the attempt, but the owner was quite happy here. The man in question was currently in his throne room, leaning back into the shadows that surrounded his raised dais so that his shifting form remained hidden from the man at his feet.

On the floor, crouched down, head bowed and seemingly unaffected by the lack of oxygen in the air around him as he took deep, steady breaths, a young man decked out in gleaming armour was eyeing the floor respectfully at the feet of his master. In the perpetual darkness, the man's sea green eyes seemed to shine out from his tanned face and his raven locks drifted lazily around his head, pulled up by the ever shifting currents that lived within these walls.

In front of the two men was what appeared to be a darker patch of shadow than all others in the room, but, up close, it was actually a portal that showed them the faces of 8 people as they sat around a wooden table, discussing matters and battle strategies. Laughing slightly, the man on the throne waved his hand, causing a disturbance in the water that ripped the message apart. Noticing the change in demeanour, the younger man shifted uneasily in place.

"My Lord?"

These two words seemed to amuse the being on the raised stage to no end, but, finally, he calmed down enough to turn to the younger man at his feet, though his smile was still evident in his words when he addressed the boy.

"Do not worry Perseus, it is of no consequence to us what the children of earth do, now, go and inform the others, it is time for us to continue the plan. Now leave, I must think some more."

Without another word, the boy silently rose to his feet before passing out into the hallway and out of the being's sight. Once the demigod had left, Pontus allowed himself a smug smile, yes, now the war was in his hands and it was time for him to put his plan into action.

* * *

Annabeth sighed, it had been almost a week since Percy had disappeared with no trace to be found, and it was beginning to weigh on her. Unbidden thoughts of the time when he had ended up on Calypso's island washed into her mind, emphasising her grief, but she pushed such thoughts away. She was no longer the girl who had lost her crush in the labyrinth, no, now she was the warrior who had lost her fiancée in the sways of a war, and there was no use in crying now. Not when there was still work to be done, even if the plan of battle was still not clear.

Pushing herself up from her place on the tussled bed, where she had been brooding in the shadows, she forced herself out of the door. Once in the brightly lit corridor, she barely hesitated, ignoring the protest of her eyes as they adjusted to the harsh lighting and, instead, walked swiftly down the plush halls and into the lift, tapping her foot agitatedly as she waited for it to climb the necessary floors before storming out into the main social room.

"If you're looking for the zombie boy, he's down on the training floor giving Natasha a run for her money."

She nodded slightly at Tony, thought it was doubtful that he noticed it, seeing as though he did not turn from the over sized T.V screen where the perky Anchor woman was informing everyone about the freak storms that were ravaging the west of the country, something specialists believed could be an early warning of yet another hurricane. Despite this, the woman seemed to be rather complacent and soon began nattering on about the new semesters starting soon for students.

Ignoring the confirmation of what she already knew, the daughter of Athena stepped quickly into the kitchen area where she slipped into a stool beside Thor, her slim frame looking even more so beside his bulk. Looking her over quickly in a analytical fashion, Steve turned back to the fridge door he had been just about to close, grabbing a bottle of sparkling water and tossing it to her before taking his own place at the counter. If there was nothing else that came out of this sudden disaster, it was the fact that a rather unexpected friendship had sprung up between the two parties allowing them to get along quite comfortably, especially with the soldier who seemed to find it his personal duty to protect the teens. After all, it was not the first time that the avengers had had to deal with such a blow, and, unfortunately, the same could be said for the demigods as well.

"Any more news from Clint?"

A few days ago, the archer had gone out with Will Solace, son of Apollo, and Clarisse La Rue, daughter of Ares, from camp half-blood, the small team going round to different parts of the country to see if they could find any information as to the whereabouts of their missing comrade, not that they had expected to discover anything they didn't already know, but it was still worth a try. At last check, the small part were some where in Louisiana, searching down a rebel group of monsters reported to be ripping up the area.

Sighing slightly the super soldier slumped slightly further in his seat, cupping his hands around the cup of ice tea that sat in front of him. Thor merely sighed, prodding his pop tarts around without any enthusiasm.

"No word yet on young Perseus, but tell me, have you any luck on interpreting the prophecy? Surely you must have some inferences to derive from the riddle."

Pulling the top off of her drink, Annabeth took a long gulp before speaking again, the sparkling liquid soothing her ragged throat and starting to mitigate the pounding in her temples.

"Well, as far as I can see, I think you are Lightning, Thor, Earth is most probably Nico, but as for Scorn and Fire, I have absolutely no idea. What bothers me more though is the fact that it has been too long. Surely, now that he has Percy, Pontus should be setting out to attack, why is he delaying so long?"

There was silence for a moment as the other two thought more about the girl's words. Neither of them were really knew much about riddles, being more of the attack force of the team, but that did not mean that they were not able to think in a situation that called for it. On a screen to the side of the door, they could all clearly make out the figures of a black clad woman with flaming hair, guarding herself wearily from the gothic boy that was battering her down with a wooden sword. After a particular motion where Natasha flipped over Nico's shoulder in an attempt to get away from his sudden onslaught, Steve's head suddenly snapped up as though he suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, you both know how Romanoff got her code name right?"

There was a murmur of agreement from the others as they tried to see where the soldier was heading with this, but his eyes were fixed upon the screen so he did not notice the confused glances thrown his way. He was far to caught up in his own thoughts however to be deterred by the lack of enthusiasm shown by his team mates.

"Well, back in my time women like her would be scorned right… well, maybe that would be what the prophecy meant, for the Scorn part, it could be her?"

"it is possible, but the ways of the oracle are never truly clear until events come to pass."

And so on went the musings of the three until they all fell into a comfortable silence, as had passed many of the days before.

* * *

Alone in his throne room, Poseidon sat alone, tears streaming silently down his tanned cheeks even as his left hand clamped around the smooth grip of the trident by his side. Once again his son was missing. Once again his favourite son, who had suffered far too much and given more than could be asked of him for the sake of Olympus, was in the hands of the enemy before he could even recover from his last ordeal. What hurt the deity more however, was the fact that, now, he could see no way for his child to survive, not through the wrath of this new enemy.

Since the news had reached him, the lord of the seas had spent most of his time in solitude, not wanting to see the disapproving looks from his wife and immortal son, not now. Far away from his palace, his troops were engaged in a small skirmish with some minor sea monsters, but he did not feel like joining them, no, now he was facing a much greater problem. Sally.

Over the years, this one mortal woman had been forced to face far more stress than any should ever have to endure. When there was still a minor chance of their son turning up alive in some way shape or form, was it worth her tears and pain to inform her of the disappearance, or should he wait until the inevitable had been confirmed? He could not bear to see her tears, but was it not a greater evil to leave her blind about the whole situation? How should he approach this meeting even if he went?

He was so entrenched in the workings of these questions that he did not notice Triton slip into the room through the open door, nor did he hear his son's voice as he sought his father's council, indeed, it was only when the merman physically pressed upon his shoulder that the sea god startled into awareness.

"I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

The immortal in front of him seemed to be trying to hold back his exasperation as he swayed from side to side, seemingly unable to stay still. The sea prince was decked out in his gleaming armour, weapon in hand and helmet firmly covering his face so that Poseidon could not read his son's expression, though irritation bled into his words as he repeated himself, something he clearly was not used to.

"The attack father, we though it would be a simple battle, but it appears that we misjudged the entire situation. They did not rise against us of their own violation, they are being led by a warrior who fights like a demon and wields a bronze sword. Our troops are confused my lord, they believe that this fighter uses the very water as his weapon though it is only a trait of our family. What news do you have in this matter?"

Poseidon's heart fell as he heard those words, the ones that he had been hoping against hope not to hear. Sighing slightly, he lowered his head to his hands, hiding his anguish as he addressed his eldest child.

"Go out and join the battle my son, you are needed there for I fear that your opponent this time will test you to the very edge of your skill. This time Triton, you will be facing your brother, you will be facing Percy…"

* * *

**A/N: there you have it, I hope you enjoyed it **


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